Wine to be sold in SA supermarkets

A proposal to allow wine sales in South Australian supermarkets contradicts Government policies to target alcohol-fuelled violence, the Opposition says.

The State Government intends to introduce draft legislation to Parliament to create a new type of liquor licence and has released a discussion paper on the issue.

The licence would allow supermarkets of more than 400 square metres to sell bottled wine but no other type of alcohol.

Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond says she is suspending judgment until she sees the details but is concerned it could aggravate the types of social problems already caused by alcohol.

"The Government has identified alcohol-fuelled violence is a problem they say they're trying to address and that indeed preloading is one of the problems they say is causing this alcohol-fuelled violence, that is people having alcohol before going out to licensed premises," she said.

Ms Redmond says excessive drinking is a problem among teenagers and young adults and the culture needs to change.

"There is implicit in the attitude that you have to have the availability of alcohol generally a lesson that all our young people seem to be learning and that is you cannot socialise without alcohol," she said.

Attorney-General John Rau says the proposal is intended to save shoppers time and would not lead to more street crime.

"We don't want to turn supermarkets into in effect bottle shops ... this is a very limited and deliberately limited licence category," he said.

"The idea with this is that a person who might be buying some chops or some vegetables for their evening meal can also pick up a bottle of wine in the same place.

"There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that that sort of person is displaying irresponsible consumption of alcohol.

"The alcohol-fuelled violence we see in the city in particular, which I abhor, tends to occur in late-night venues where there are large amounts of people where spirits and fairly powerful alcoholic beverages are sold."

Staff selling the wine would have to be 18-years-old and trained in the responsible service of alcohol.

Mr Rau says the proposal is also intended to give local wineries an alternative means of selling their produce.

"Small producers here in South Australia are feeling a bit of a squeeze at the present time by having limited access to retail markets," he said.

"We would hope some of the smaller independent wineries would be able to take advantage of this as an alternative way of getting their product sold into the local market."

Mixed response

The discussion paper follows debate on the issue and has divided retailers.

Joseph Romeo says his North Adelaide supermarket would apply for a licence.

"It would just compliment our store. It becomes a one-stop shop and it's no different to what happens in the ACT, Victoria, New Zealand, Europe and America," he said.

But John Swanson from a nearby bottle shop says it could put specialty retailers like his under threat.

"This is a con, to start saying 'we only want to sell wine, we only want to help small wineries,' that's rubbish," he said.

"As soon as they get wine in the next step will be spirits, the next step will be beer."

The Australian Hotels Association says the proposal was developed with little or no industry consultation and wants it withdrawn.

Spokesman Ian Horne says the association will raise several concerns with the government during a period allowed for submissions.

"Many government agencies, South Australian government agencies, are very, very concerned about the expanding of availability of alcohol," he said.

"On the one hand this Government is trying to shut down liquor outlets with curtailing promotions of alcohol, trying to reduce hours, trying to make it more difficult for current operators with their promotions, and on the other hand they're giving a free kick to the big end of town."